Following the team with a unique perspective on all things Phillies.Email me: PhilliesPhollowers@comcast.net – Peace, Love & Baseball – Jenn

Results tagged ‘ RJ Swindle ’

Well, I don’t know what is cooking in the Phillies front office these days, but I sure hope it is more than hamburgers!After another artery-cloggingperformance by Adam Eaton today, it is painfully obvious that the Phils are desperate for starting pitching.Without enough cooks in the kitchen, we are going to wind up starting a 5-alarm fire and watch this team go down in flames!Eaton only went 3.2 innings and gave up 8 earned runs on 7 hits, 3 walks and struck out 4.The real damage came when with two outs in the 4th, he gave up a double to the pitcher, Randy Johnson!Instead of getting out of the inning, the D-Backs went on to score 7 more runs.What a disaster!

The only bright spots of the day came off the bat of the Flyin’ Hawaiian, Shane Victorino who popped not one, but TWO home runs off the Big Unit, Randy Johnson, who looked less than pleased about it.Those homers accounted for 3 of the 4 Phillies runs in the 10-4 blow-out loss today.The only other run was knocked in pretty much by accident by rookie pitcher RJ Swindle whose bat just happened to magically find the ball, scoring Eric Bruntlett from 3rd base.Bruntlett filled in for Chase Utley who had the day off to rest and, as it turns out, he did not miss much.

Tomorrow afternoon, the Phillies will have one last chance to go out before the break on a high note with Cole Hamels on the mound facing the ace of the D-Backs, Brandon Webb.It is also “Hawaiian Day” at the ballpark, which having been there last year, I can tell you is a lot of fun.They are giving away the Shane Victorino bobble heads again for the kiddies.I will be going again this year and if you remember last year, Shane hit a walk-off home run to end it last year…can we hope for more of the same in 08?Well, I’d even settle for a blow-out win… J

And remember to stay tuned for my All-Star week coverage!I’ll be going to Fan Fest Monday morning and then to the Derby Monday night.Then it is off to the Red Carpet Parade on 6th Ave. on Tuesday JI will be covering all events as I am able to get back to my laptop and upload photos.Hoping to have some coverage of tomorrow’s game before then as well.Until then…Go Phillies!

The Phillies attempted to put an end to their offensive slumber, but it all came after already being in the hole 10 runs to the Mets.All-Star Chase Utley whacked another league-leading home run, his 25th of the year, to start the scoring for the Phillies in the 4th inning, but it was all too little, too late.Ultimately, even with 4 homers and 12 total hits on the night, the Phillies still fell to the Mets for the third night in a row, this time by a score of 10-9.Nearly pulling off an amazing comeback in the ninth inning, they fell just short as Jayson Werth flew out to right field with a runner on second base to end the game.

Pat Burrell made a great bid for getting some more votes towards the All-Star team tonight, smacking his 22nd homer of the year in the 6th inning and he also had an outfield assist.Remember to keep voting for Pat…he needs our help to make the team!Use the link below to vote as many times as you can or you can text the word “VOTE” to 36197 from your mobile phone to have the All-Star Final Vote candidates sent to your phone and then reply with your choice.We only have until Thursday at 5pm to get those votes in, so get moving!

The real story of tonight’s game though is Adam Eaton.A truly awful performance.He went only 2.2 innings, gave up 6 earned runs on 10 hits and looked like the Eaton of 2007, which is someone nobody wanted to ever see again.Clay Condrey did a great job filling in for 2.1 innings and giving up no runs.Then we got to see the rookie, RJ Swindle, making his major league debut on his 25th birthday.Looks like we won’t be seeing a lot of him, except against left-handers as he struggled mightily against the right-handers.I assume the fact that his pitches range from 82-54mph will not help his case.One curve ball he threw at about 54mph looked like I could have caught it barehanded…scary.

So when is this team going to start hitting before the end of the game?Your guess is as good as mine.Someone better figure it out quick though, because now we have both the Fish and the Mets knocking on the backdoor…

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